


Damian

by rocket_rach



Series: Praestigiae [4]
Category: Batman - All Media Types
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-26
Updated: 2017-07-26
Packaged: 2018-12-07 03:32:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 602
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11614998
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rocket_rach/pseuds/rocket_rach





	Damian

_Damian really hates being dead._

Mainly because he knows his father won’t truly avenge him the way he should, but what could he do about that now? Damian sat up in the thick fog, and promptly threw his fist into a face he had seen on many paintings in Wayne Manor.

“What the hell does Bruce train you boys in? Paranoia 405?” Thomas groaned as Martha reached for his face. She pulled her husband’s hand from his face to inspect the damage.

“Damian, what do you say?” Martha prompted.

“Who are you people?”

“Like father like son.” Groaned Thomas after a particularly vicious prod from his wife. “Don’t you recognize us?”

“I do, that’s the problem,” the youngest Wayne got to his feet, circling around his grandparents slowly. “It obviously means I’m dead, but the fact that you’re both here means that there isn’t any sort of positive afterlife…. Which sucks.”

“I don’t think it’s broken. Just sore.”

“They told me about you two,” Damian accused, watching the elder Waynes. “I told them they were fools if they thought you were real. I was wrong.”

“Damian, that’s enough.”

The son of the Bat blinked. No one, not even his mother had used such a tone with him. He swallowed as Martha leaned down.

“We could have left you here. We didn’t because _you’re_ our grandchild. We love you and we want to see you safe. But you need to understand that our love for you, that Bruce’s, and your brothers love is not a weakness on your part. You are stronger because of everyone’s love. You are a Wayne. Do you understand me? You are not your childhood,” Her nose was inches from his. “We are not asking you to love every one as Dick does, but just to try. Can you do that for me, little one?”

“To try loving the family?” Damian asked, his voice small as his size.

“Yes.”

Damian looked towards his grandfather. He could try. He really _could._ But after everything, after Ra’s and his father beating the shit out of him when he was under Talia’s influence, it was still scary. It wasn’t scary like the smell of an attempted rapist in Gotham’s street. It wasn’t sweat, fear, and the stench of rotting garbage nearly blinding him. It wasn’t his sense of smell, his realized. It was his gut.

It was his gut telling him that his grandparents had a point.

“I’ll be here for a while. Maybe you could… teach me?”

“Why do we fall, Damian?” Thomas asked.

“What?”

“Why do we fall, Damian. Do you know?”

“Because we lost our balance?” That earned a laugh from Martha.

“You really are Bruce’s boy. He said the same thing.” She hummed as Thomas pulled the boy into an embrace.

“So we can learn to pick ourselves up again. Come on, Dami. Let’s-”

A furious scream tore through the clearing so loudly, it parted the fog. Thomas clenched his grandson to his chest as he rose. 

“We have to go, now!” Thomas called over the scream. Martha took his hand and they began running. Damian squirmed in his arms.

“What’s going on? Put me down! I can help,” He protested, pushing against his grandfather’s chest.

“Stay _still_ son. It’s the wraiths. They’re coming to take you to the afterlife. If Bruce is going to succeed in bringing you back, you must stay with us.” Thomas hissed into his ear. Damian grumbled, but ceased trying to escape his arms. 

The wraith was still screaming as it searched.

It screamed up until the day Damian woke up on Apokalips.


End file.
